200 Million

Facebook Hits 200 Million Users; Launches Charities Page
Palo Alto, Calif. - Online social network Facebook has reached 200 million active users, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. "Growing rapidly to 200 million users is a really good start, but we've always known that in order for Facebook to help people represent everything that is happening in their world, everyone needs to have a voice," wrote Zuckerberg.
Facebook Hits 200 Million Users; Launches Charities Page

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2009 - 8:20am.
Palo Alto, Calif. - Online social network Facebook has reached 200 million active users, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. "Growing rapidly to 200 million users is a really good start, but we've always known that in order for Facebook to help people represent everything that is happening in their world, everyone needs to have a voice," wrote Zuckerberg.

To that end, the company launched Facebook for Good, a new page "where people can share their stories about how Facebook has helped them give back to their communities, effect change or connect with a distant relative."

It also partnered with 16 charitable and advocacy organizations, including Kiva, Unicef, Livestrong and American Red Cross, which have create virtual "gifts" that members can purchase and post on one another's profiles.

Facebook said the organizations will receive 90-95% of the cost of the gift, with the remaining going to administrative expenses for the transactions.
To that end, the company launched Facebook for Good, a new page "where people can share their stories about how Facebook has helped them give back to their communities, effect change or connect with a distant relative."

It also partnered with 16 charitable and advocacy organizations, including Kiva, Unicef, Livestrong and American Red Cross, which have create virtual "gifts" that members can purchase and post on one another's profiles.

Facebook said the organizations will receive 90-95% of the cost of the gift, with the remaining going to administrative expenses for the transactions.

Along With Apple, Amazon MP3, Others Hike Digital Song Prices

Seattle - While Apple (NASD: AAPL) got the most coverage for launching variable pricing yesterday at the iTunes Store, where top songs may now be priced at $1.29 and catalog tracks at 69 cents, the change affected much of the rest of the digital music retail market, with similar price hikes seen at Amazon MP3 (NASD: AMZN), RealNetworks' (NASD: RNWK) Rhapsody, Walmart.com (NYSE: WMT) ($1.24) and Lala.

Ars Technica noted that the price increases have not been uniform across all sites, as the Black Eyed Peas' new single "Boom Boom Pow" costs $1.29 on iTunes, but can be purchased for 99 cents at Amazon MP3, and for 89 cents from Lala.com.

NPD Group recently said that 16% of U.S. digital music purchasers bought tracks from the Amazon MP3 store last year.

Billboard reports that hip-hop tracks were the most likely to see a price hike at the iTunes Store, as ten of the current top 20 were raised in price to $1.29, compared with 29% of top country songs, 25% of top rock songs, and 13% of currently popular alternative tracks.